Porsche-Piech familes could give up control of carmaker

With Porsche in deep financial trouble, talks continue with the Gulf state of Qatar to help the German sportcar manufacturer restore its account balance. Interestingly if the deal goes ahead as planned, some speculate that the Porsche and Piech families could give up full control over their business.

As it has stood for many years, investors could never buy enough shares to have a say in the operations of company, which now has a majority stake in Volkswagen, but that may soon change.

All other interested investors have been put aside and a Porsche spokesman said “There are only talks with Qatar now”. The company will sell a stake in its automobile holding either via a capital increase of unlisted common shares or by divesting its options for Volkswagen shares.

Some media organisations have reported that Qatar could take up to 25 percent in Porsche’s holding company for around 4.5 billion euros ($7.5 billion). Although both sides of the deal have declined to comment, many expect the parties to reach an agreement within a few weeks.

The families who have long controlled Porsche are also in charge of Salzburg-based Porsche Holding, Europe’s largest dealership group.

The Arabs are not new to buying stakes in German manufacturers, earlier this year Abu Dhabi’s IPIC sovereign wealth fund bought a 9.1 percent stake in Daimler (Mercedes-Benz) for almost 2 billion euros.